Thanksgiving Riches

"Practice the pause and celebrate your blessings this Thanksgiving."

"What an awesome Thanksgiving holiday!! THESE are the things in life that REALLY MATTER!!"

"That's wonderful! He's home for Thanksgiving. That's something to be thankful for!"

"Blessings upon blessings this Thanksgiving!"

From family to friends to the lady at the pharmacy window to the hospital concierge I have been covered in blessings and messages of hope. Not just in my Father's Word, not just in the comfort His Spirit speaks to mine, but in texts, and in flesh and blood hugs, and smiles, and kindnesses --abundant and lavish kindnesses shown to me and my family! And prayers! Oh, the pleas and petitions that you can actually feel from miles away, spoken and lifted before our Lord and Master! 

People are wonderful, and I don't mean to take away from the inner or outer beauty of God's creation, but this is God at work! Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. (James 1:17) These people and their words of encouragement, these encounters are made possible by life's Sponsor, Creator, and Designer! And He has shown His love to every one of us through the birth, substitutionary death, and resurrection of His Son. But His lovingkindness doesn't stop there! If you can imagine that! We see it in His creation, playful squirrels circling trees and the colors reflected off the ocean at sunrise. We hear it in the sound of rain pattering on leaves high up in the tallest trees and pets snoring comfortably at our feet. We smell it in freshly baked bread and our child's hair damp with sweat after romping gleefully in the sun for hours. We feel His lovingkindness in the warmth of a cup of coffee and the crisp cool of fresh cotton sheets. And we taste it in the drop of sweetness that comes from pulling the stigma from a honeysuckle or that special zest of catching a snowflake on your tongue. Best of all, I think, is His lovingkindness seen in the faces of those who will gather around our table today or laugh with us by video call; or the voices and special wishes of those we hold dear, reaching us over the miles. Knowing that they are to us particular blessings, and somehow, we are the same to them. Joined together by a gracious and beneficent Provider who has given us to one another for His glory and our enrichment.

We are as rich as any family can be! Happy Thanksgiving!